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00:05This is the story of a Syrian soldier who turns his back on the Roman Empire and pays the price.
00:15Captured, enslaved, and forced to fight as a gladiator.
00:21To be forcibly sent to a gladiatorial school, well, that was viewed as roughly equivalent as being sent to work
00:28in the mines.
00:28Sent to Sicily, he is given the name Flamma and rises to become one of the greatest gladiators the Empire
00:39has ever seen.
00:40It's clear from his stance that Flamma was a champion gladiator. He was a superstar. He was born for the
00:47arena.
00:48Over 34 brutal fights. He earns his reputation, his scars, and the respect of his brothers in arms.
00:57Close bonds were formed.
01:00You may have had a family outside of the looters, but it's also, like, who really understands? Who's in the
01:07trenches with you?
01:09But glory comes at a cost. And for Flamma, the ultimate test will be a deadly duel. Not against an
01:19enemy, but against a friend.
01:34The second century CE. In Sicily, excitement builds as the next gladiator games approach.
01:44Among the fighters is a legend preparing for his 34th battle. His name is Flamma.
01:53The interesting thing about Flamma is that all we have to go by him is epigraphic evidence.
01:58Flamma's epitaph is pretty short. It's only a couple of lines, but it gives us a lot of information about
02:04him.
02:05It tells us where he's from, that he's from Syria, the other side of the world, and yet he'd ended
02:11up in Sicily fighting.
02:15So his name is Flamma, but that's not his real name. It's a stage name.
02:20Most gladiators we know took a stage name, sort of a nom de guerre, that they would fight under in
02:26the arena.
02:28Your stage name would tell the audience something about you and the quality that you bring to the arena.
02:36Flamma means the flame, perhaps because he danced around so lightly, or perhaps because he burned with a real passion.
02:45He has fought 33 times. He's won 21 of those fights. Nine of them have been draws.
02:54And three times he's been reprieved, even though he lost.
02:59When you look at most gladiator tombstones, they fought three, four, five times.
03:06So 33 times is a lot for a gladiator.
03:13Nothing remains of Flamma's story beyond his tombstone.
03:18Even the exact years he lived are uncertain.
03:21He may have lived at any point in the second century.
03:28Yet these bare details allow a surprising level of insight into the life he could have led.
03:35From these, a story begins to take shape.
03:40It's possible he fought under the rule of Emperor Septimius Severus.
03:46On the evening before his 34th fight, Flamma shares a pre-fight meal with his familia gladiatoria.
03:55The familia gladiatoria would be the household or the community that was overseen by the owner-trainer, by the lanista.
04:05When you lived within the Ludus, you lived in a confined space.
04:08You trained with these people every day.
04:10You ate with these people.
04:10You lived your life with these people.
04:12Close bonds were formed if they are like brothers in arms.
04:15They put money to the side in a pole that in case something happens to one of them,
04:20that not only will their families be taken care of, but also that they will receive a gravestone to ensure
04:25that you are thus remembered.
04:28Flamma and his fellow gladiators share their meal, but they aren't alone.
04:34The public were able to come and watch gladiators have kind of like the last meal of a condemned man.
04:42This is your chance to see the gladiators before the big event.
04:47What could be better than this?
04:50It kind of humanizes them a little bit.
04:53You don't see them with their big helmets, their weapons.
04:55You see the athlete behind it.
04:58But also, if you're a betting man, it's good to go see what shape are they in.
05:02Does he have a good appetite?
05:03Is he eating?
05:04He looks a bit sluggish.
05:05Should I make that bet on him tomorrow?
05:08It's also a way for the fans to meet their heroes.
05:11And that was important because it got the excitement flowing for what was coming the following morning.
05:23At the dinner, Flamma rises and toasts his fellow gladiator, Delicatus.
05:29They had been comrades in the arena probably for many years at this point.
05:35They both know that each other are very competent.
05:39Many, many combats under their belt.
05:44As Flamma and Delicatus eat together, the crowd watches on, hoping that there will be a great fight tomorrow.
05:54Although Flamma and his troop try to enjoy their meal, they know that tomorrow they will face each other in
06:02the arena.
06:03This is a regular occurrence. After all, these are the same guys that you're training with, the guys that you're
06:08living with.
06:09The lanista and the trainers know who to pair up for a good fight.
06:14Imagine you fought with these people, you've trained with these people.
06:17Now you've actually got to put all of that aside and treat them as an enemy.
06:25No matter how much wine was being consumed, it wasn't going to wash away the feeling of apprehension of what
06:30was going to happen the next day.
06:33For a gladiator going into any fight, you'd have to be nervous. You'd be crazy not to be.
06:39There is always the chance that you will lose, that something will go wrong for you in the arena, and
06:46the decision will be made that you have to die.
06:49It doesn't happen every time, but this is a moment where you could potentially lose your life.
06:55So, if you didn't have some feelings about that, I'd be extremely worried.
07:01Although that probably would make you a great gladiator.
07:07So, when we think of games, we think of the Colosseum, but here in Sicily we're talking much more provincial,
07:13small-scale fights.
07:17Gladiatorial fighting has spread all across the empire at this point.
07:21The person putting on the games is probably a local magistrate, someone who wants to benefit the citizens who have
07:28elected him to office.
07:31We're probably talking a few thousand spectators, a few dozen pairs of gladiators perhaps.
07:38So, it's nothing like the kind of huge imperial spectacles that you find in Rome.
07:44But these games are no ordinary spectacle.
07:49Emperors travel widely across the empire and are invited to local games.
07:55So, it's possible a very special guest is expected.
08:00The emperor will be in attendance since the games are being thrown in his honor.
08:07When you have the most important person in the whole Roman Empire visiting, you would want to put on a
08:12good show.
08:16The time has come.
08:19Flama steps out for his 34th contest.
08:22The exact accounts of Flama's fights are lost.
08:26But we can imagine the drama that unfolded in the arena that day.
08:31Flama steps into the arena, his helmet gleaming.
08:35He's pushing almost 30 at the ancient by the standards of gladiators.
08:41He's fought in many battles and he wears the scars of his combats.
08:46When we think about how people live in the ancient world, it's not great in terms of life expectancy.
08:55If you get through childhood, which is incredibly hard, you have a good chance of getting through a full adult
09:01life.
09:02But there's lots of things that could get in your way.
09:05Being a gladiator, not ideal.
09:07You could get injured and not come back from it.
09:11Look at boxers today, MMA fighters.
09:13They tend to retire in their 30s because the body just gets through that much punishment.
09:17Imagine taking a shield to the helmet.
09:20I mean, that really would have given you a bad concussion, maybe fracture.
09:23It's the kind of injuries you're not going to recover from.
09:26On average, gladiators probably live for three or four years and probably start fighting at the age of 18 or
09:3319.
09:35So to make it to 30, you are pretty old by gladiator standards.
09:43Flammer was a secutor, a pursuer.
09:46So he fights with the sword and the shield.
09:49And they are usually paired up with a net fighter, Aretiarius.
09:56His opponent steps out, Aretiarius.
10:02His delicatus tried in one hand, net in the other.
10:09They're paired together because they're very contrasting styles.
10:13People like that.
10:14They like their gladiators to be sort of clearly distinct brands, different personality types in a way.
10:21It's very hard to us to understand what it must have meant to have to fight one of your family.
10:27They were really close comrades in arms who had trained together.
10:33When the emperor gives a signal, the gladiators will then begin to fight.
10:42Flammer, a secutor, is more advancing, sort of thrusting, trying to sort of catch him with his heavy sword.
10:52Flammer, a secutor, is more than a scututor.
10:52Whereas a delicatus, he's dancing around, trying to sort of snare you with his net, and then finish you off
10:57with his trident.
10:59The trident was a formidable weapon.
11:02First of all, it gave you a huge advantage because of the distance.
11:05You could keep your opponent at bay, and that was part of the tactics.
11:09You kept striking with it.
11:10If you're fighting against someone like a secutor, with that heavy shield, they're gonna get tired very quickly.
11:17Delicatus lands a decisive blow.
11:21His trident pierces Flammer, who is unable to carry on.
11:26It is now the decision of the emperor whether he should live or die.
11:39Flammer's life hangs in the balance, but how did this veteran of the arena end up here, wounded, and waiting
11:47for judgment in a Sicilian amphitheatre?
11:52Flammer may have grown up his entire childhood around gladiators and gladiatorial fighting in his native Syria.
11:59Gladiators have become the global phenomenon.
12:02For everyone in the Roman Empire, it was a language they could understand.
12:09We tend to see amphitheaters turning up in Chester, for example, in northern England, in modern-day Morocco, stretching all
12:17the way across Germanic territories, modern-day Bulgaria.
12:22And, of course, there were amphitheaters in Syria.
12:25Gladiatorial fighting in Syria would have been a bit different than in Rome or in Italy.
12:30The venue was often makeshift or using Greek-style theaters as opposed to purpose-built amphitheaters.
12:38What we find is that the games in the provinces tended to be more heavy on the animals.
12:42The simple reason is that animals were easier to source than gladiators were.
12:48In the morning, camel races could possibly have dominated entertainment for the people of Syria.
12:54There are camels in that part of the world, and so you use the local product.
13:02In the afternoon, the locals cheer on as the men battle each other in combat.
13:09However, though, the quality of the fighting was not the same as the fighting in Rome.
13:15The closer that one got to Rome, the higher the level of expertise.
13:25These games were brutal, but for Flamma looking on, these would have been the finest athletes one could imagine.
13:34Flamma likely grows up in the shadow of the arena, perhaps watching games staged under the reign of Emperor Commodus.
13:44When Commodus is assassinated, power shifts to a new emperor, Septimius Severus.
13:55Septimius Severus is an incredible figure in Roman history and is often overlooked to people's detriment because he is the
14:04first Roman emperor who comes from North Africa.
14:08And this means that the Roman Empire has changed.
14:16He's from Lepsis Magna, and this was not unusual.
14:19During this time, plenty of wealthy, upper-class individuals from the North African provinces begin entering into the senatorial order.
14:31Severus' reign is an indication of how diverse the Roman Empire has become.
14:35A real indication that Rome and its empire went through amazing transformations over time and incorporated all sorts of people
14:43at the highest levels of society.
14:48He establishes a new dynasty, the Severan dynasty, that carries on until 235.
14:56The Severan dynasty mark the end of the second century CE and go into the third century CE.
15:03And they're really marked out by the fact that we get an emperor who's from North Africa, but also his
15:09wife who is from Syria.
15:11And then they establish a dynasty that comes from primarily Syria, after Septimius Severus and his children, Caracalla and Geta.
15:27One thing that Septimius does is he rehabilitates Commodus.
15:34Commodus was the first individual in Rome to try to combine the role of emperor with professional gladiator.
15:43And that brought in spectators from all over the empire.
15:49The first Septimius bit was just sheer hypocrisy.
15:52The Senate were kind of all uppity about Commodus and Commodus being a gladiator.
15:58And yet, you know, they themselves were just as obsessed with gladiators as everyone else.
16:06Septimius confronted the Senate and said, did none of you fight in the arena as a gladiator?
16:11Did none of you buy up Commodus' equipment, his shields?
16:15After chastising the Senate, Septimius Severus stages grand spectacles of his own.
16:24But how might someone like Flamma go from watching in the stands as a young man to fighting for his
16:31life as a gladiator?
16:43One of the things that characterizes the period of Septimius Severus is a huge amount of military operations.
16:51All the way through the Roman period, there's been another empire on the border in the east, the Parthian Empire.
16:59And this was an empire in what's now modern-day Iran and the surrounding areas.
17:04And it was ruled by a succession of kings.
17:07This was a people that for centuries posed an existential threat to Roman control of the east.
17:19To defend against the Parthians, forts are built across Syria to strengthen the Roman Empire's eastern border.
17:29The ancient province of Syria would, these days, refer to the modern nations of Jordan, Lebanon, Israel, Palestine, and parts
17:39of modern-day Syria.
17:42Syria had been under Roman control for over 200 years at this point.
17:48The Syrian province at this time is very wealthy, very cosmopolitan, very diverse.
17:54It's a key engine for driving economic wealth for the empire during this region.
17:59It was a hub for all sorts of activity and connections. It had key cities, including Antioch and Palmyra.
18:08There were major trade routes and people coming in and out from trade perspectives.
18:12It was a vitally strategic and important place for the Roman training.
18:18It's not just for the trade routes, but also because it acts as the bulwark against the Parthian Empire on
18:24the east.
18:26To secure the frontier, forts are filled with highly trained Syrian archers, known for their unmatched skill with a bow
18:35and arrow.
18:39One of the great successes of the Roman army was to use soldiers from local parts of the empire who
18:45were excessively good at one particular skill.
18:48Syrian archers were renowned for their precision. The bow was a weapon that they had long had a history with,
18:55and certainly it was one that the Romans relied on heavily.
18:59One of the things the Romans liked to do in the areas where they conquered was take the specific groups
19:05of people and put them into specific auxiliary units.
19:11You might have an also an auxiliary of archers.
19:14Men like Flama are often conscripted into the Roman military and stationed in forts on the Syrian border.
19:30Service in the army in Syria would have been tough.
19:37These forts would have held somewhere between 60 to 100 soldiers.
19:44As a young man, Flama may have grown disillusioned with army life, attempting to flee and vanish into the desert.
19:58Desertion is a grave crime punishable by death, or in some cases, enslavement.
20:10There was a massive slave market at that period of Roman history.
20:13So there was a huge network of supply of slaves from all parts of the empire.
20:18If one brought up a lot of prisoners of war, and then sold them into slavery, one could categorize them
20:27as, you know, this person is a very good reader, or this person is highly literate, or that person has
20:33just the physique that you would want for hard labor.
20:36Very often, these enslaved persons were highly skilled, and they were often performers or theatrical entertainers.
20:46Due to feed the desire for gladiator combats, there was a network of gladiator scouts who would go across the
20:54empire looking for potential new recruits that they could train up into the amphitheaters to fight as gladiators.
21:03The enslavers would look for a combination of obviously strength and the spirit to fight, but also a certain theatricality
21:12and good looks.
21:15Flama may have been spotted at a slave market, and forced to join a gladiator school in Sicily.
21:23Flama would have been put on a slave boat with other enslaved peoples.
21:28Flama would have been traveled, and there would have been trade routes in which these slaves would have been traveled
21:31along.
21:31Clearly, traveling the empire was a very difficult option. Sometimes it took three months to get from one side to
21:36the other.
21:36So it's a very arduous and long journey.
21:40What we know about southern Italy and Sicily from earlier periods is that these were places that had heavy levels
21:47of exploitation of the enslaved,
21:49and also really quite interesting gladiator training grounds.
21:57Flama, now enslaved, will begin the grueling regime to become a gladiator.
22:04He may have enjoyed watching the games as a child in Syria, but now he will learn how to fight
22:11and possibly die in front of a crowd.
22:20Flama is now a gladiator in Sicily, and he's put to training in the Ludus.
22:26The harsh training inside the Ludus didn't just create fighters, it forged a brotherhood.
22:34And someone like Flama would form deep bonds with his fellow gladiators.
22:40We know that he was very close with another gladiator, Delacartus.
22:45Now Delacartus's name means tender one, or effeminate one, or charming one, and can have sexual queer connotations.
22:56So we could speculate that Delacartus might be more than just a comrade at arms for Flama.
23:04The two gladiators likely train together, learning how to survive in the arena.
23:11The new recruit is finally given his stage name, Flama.
23:18It is the identity he will carry for the rest of his career.
23:23For a gladiator like Flama to start with, you're given your basic armor by the Ludus.
23:28The Ludus owns a certain amount of armor.
23:29We find examples in Pompeii that are stamped with the name of the school,
23:33or sometimes they're stamped by the person who rents them out.
23:36It was a big business.
23:40His initial combat would have been with used helmets, used shields, used swords,
23:45that would have been quite a heavy and hot piece of kit to wear.
23:50It's almost a workout just to carry and fight with the material.
23:55It's certainly more elaborate than what most Roman soldiers wear.
24:02Flama steps into the arena for the first time, possibly as part of a group battle of novice fighters.
24:11The Gregarious was the sort of one for all.
24:14I suppose a modern term for the Gregarious would be the Royal Rumble,
24:18the free-for-all where wrestlers are just jumping in the ring, they're jumping out, they're coming into fight.
24:23Gladiators are coming backwards and forwards.
24:25It's exciting because it is really organized chaos.
24:30This is done with not so much champion gladiators, but maybe gladiators who aren't quite as famous.
24:37They seem to be junior gladiators, maybe their first gladiatorial combat might be in one of these group fights.
24:46It just made the games a little bit more different from the other games that people had seen,
24:51and maybe a little bit more exciting, visually at least.
24:56Flama stood out from the rest of the gladiators.
24:58He showed himself to be the superior fighter.
25:02He's a man to watch. He's a man on the rise.
25:05What we can assume by him is that he was someone that really knew how to win the crowd, to
25:10give a good show.
25:11People didn't care to see an average fight.
25:15We're talking about a period of history where people were very familiar with violence.
25:19It was present in everyday life. Wars were constantly going on.
25:24The amphitheater had to be that extra. It had to give you something you didn't see in the battlefield.
25:29So what we can surmise is that Fiamma was able to give them that something, that lightning in a bottle.
25:37We see Fiamma's fame grow. He wins fight after fight after fight.
25:44With each victory, Fiamma's reputation grows. The years roll by.
25:52After more than 30 fights, he is one of the most successful gladiators in all of Sicily.
26:00He's something of a veteran. He'd been fighting for probably 10 years.
26:07I'm sure he will have acquired a real sort of loyal following of supporters who really cheered him on.
26:14And I think one of the reasons why he was spared by the Giver of the Games four times, even
26:19though he loses,
26:20is that the crowd were very much on his side.
26:32So the question is, why did a gladiator like Fiamma, who had such a distinguished career, never finally achieve his
26:39freedom?
26:41A gladiator had a wooden sword, known as a rudis, associated with them twice in their professional lifetimes.
26:50One is when entering the arena and first learning how to fight.
26:56The second is when being acquitted from having to fight after a long and, in fact, distinguished career.
27:06To be offered the rudis by the person putting on the show, the editor, means essentially that he and the
27:14people gathered,
27:15probably cheering for this or chanting for this, have decided that they're going to essentially purchase your freedom.
27:25So it's clearly a symbol that's very important to the gladiator.
27:29It's a symbol of beginning their training.
27:32It's the name of the referee.
27:34And it's, of course, the symbol of their freedom.
27:38That can be giving them access to the Roman world once again, outside of the amphitheatre.
27:49We might imagine that gladiators would be desperate to escape from the arena.
27:54But for some of them, it was their life.
27:57It was the thrill of the crowd, of the possibility of getting rich, just showing what a good fighter you
28:05were.
28:06And for some gladiators, it was just all they knew.
28:09It's like a kind of prize fight boxer who's kind of so addicted to the thrills, the glamour, the glory,
28:17the popularity, that they can't give it up.
28:21It is conceivable that Flamma is offered the wooden Brutus, but refuses it.
28:27And with it, his chance for freedom, unable to abandon the thrill of being a gladiator.
28:36Flamma is in his late twenties now, and that's having survived probably years as a gladiator.
28:41That's a remarkable thing in itself.
28:44Every time he steps into the arena, whether the weapons are sharp, whether they're not sharp, they're all probably dirty.
28:52Any cut has a chance of being infected.
28:56Death is always a very real possibility, even if it's accidental.
29:01So, the fact that he survived until his late twenties is itself remarkable.
29:07But still, the greatest fight of his life awaits him.
29:13Septimius Severus traveled all over the empire.
29:16He stopped in Sicily on his way to North Africa.
29:20He would have stayed for a time in town.
29:24And when in town, they would have put on spectacles, entertainment.
29:29Finally, after a long career, Flamma will fight in front of the emperor Septimius himself.
29:38It is a rare honor for a gladiator far from the city of Rome to fight in front of the
29:45emperor.
29:47Now, Flamma must prove why he's still standing when so many others have fallen.
30:01In Sicily, the officials of the island province are putting on a celebration to honor Septimius' presence.
30:08An imperial visit is something special.
30:11And so, they're certainly going to throw a celebration in his honor.
30:14And this is going to involve gladiatorial games.
30:17They put on the finest and fittest gladiators that they can find for the occasion.
30:24Over the years, Flamma has proved himself a formidable gladiator.
30:29A man with his record would likely be chosen to display his skills in front of a visiting emperor.
30:38But in this fight, the stakes are especially high.
30:42It's against someone he knows all too well.
30:48Flamma has shown himself a very hard man to beat.
30:52But he's pitted against his best friend, Delicatus.
30:59Quite often, part of the gladiatorial show was to win over the people, to win over the crowd.
31:07I think not necessarily to murder or to kill their opponent, but you want to put on a good show.
31:15A cut to the arm or a cut to the leg, that can be patched up, but it would provide
31:19a lot of bloodshed.
31:20Something for the people to see.
31:24There's a skill in gladiators fighting not to kill, but to defeat an opponent.
31:35Delicatus lands the winning blow.
31:38Now, Flamma's fate hangs in the balance.
31:44Septimius didn't want to make that decision on his own.
31:46He wanted to see what the crowd thought.
31:49The crowd cheers him on. The crowd loves him.
31:52People would shout out, let him go.
31:55It would have been a chaotic scene.
31:57You would have had so much noise around you.
32:00But the emperor would have had the final decision about whether Flamma lived or died.
32:10Although we have no record of what truly happened at Flamma's final fight, it is possible that in this moment
32:19the mighty gladiator met his end.
32:24But it's quite possible that Flamma doesn't die in the arena. His epitaph doesn't mention it.
32:31It's certainly possible that a gladiator could receive Missio at the end of a fight, but still go and die
32:37from his wounds afterwards.
32:41Swords could be sharp, the swords could be filthy, and infection can set in.
32:50There could be any number of ailments that presumably could take somebody out in the ancient world, and I feel
32:58sorry for them because they don't have things like antibiotics, so anything could happen.
33:07However, Flamma died, he lived longer than most men in his brutal profession.
33:14Flamma living to the age of 30 is actually really impressive.
33:19Chances are that Flamma has been a gladiator since his late teens.
33:23If he's been captured and taken into slavery from a young age, then he's been fighting almost half of his
33:31life.
33:34It's the end of summer, and his comrades in arms have gathered together to commemorate him.
33:41His body would have been laid in state, it would have been put on show, which would have given his
33:46fans a chance to come and say goodbye to him.
33:49Generally, he would have been surrounded by burning pine cones to mask the smell.
33:55They'll probably then put the ashes in some kind of urn and bury it, and above that set up a
34:01tombstone to his memory.
34:04We know that gladiators formed formal sort of guilds, essentially, to look after each other, so that when it came
34:11time, they were able to purchase an epitaph for you.
34:16So you could have a tombstone, so you could be remembered.
34:22And that is kind of the great dream of Rome as well, this idea of being remembered after your death.
34:30So, your colleagues mean everything in this sense. You may have had a family outside of the Ludus, but it's
34:38also, like, who really understands? Who's in the trenches with you?
34:44And perhaps, really, the final indication of how strongly they feel for him is that final line on the epitaph.
34:53The last line of Fiamma's grave reads,
34:56Delicatus a gladiator made this for deserving comrade-in-arms.
35:01That really speaks to the bond that these men held.
35:04At the end of the day, they lived their lives together, they lived the highs and the lows,
35:09grueling training, the euphoria of the fights, the wins, the losses.
35:13That this was someone who really had a very close relationship to Fiamma.
35:18So much so, that he wanted it to go along with Fiamma to the other world.
35:25But Flamma isn't alone.
35:28Archaeologists have uncovered many more gladiator tombstones.
35:32Each opens a new window into this violent chapter of Roman history.
35:45In the 2000s, a remarkable historic site was uncovered.
35:51A cemetery in Ephesus, Turkey.
35:55The cemetery was full of skeletal remains
35:59that showed wounds that were so severe that they left marks on the bone.
36:05And so at first, it looked as though this was a military cemetery.
36:10Archaeologists and osteologists have done research on these bones and have identified what almost certainly are gladiatorial weapons that were
36:19used to kill the gladiators.
36:21The wounds that they suffered are, in the majority of cases, blade wounds.
36:26But there are a couple of instances where there's been evident use of a trident, because you can see the
36:32holes.
36:34Which made it evident that what we were dealing with was a gladiatorial cemetery.
36:40We see wounds to the head, which suggests that they had technically died in the arena, and then had been
36:48finished off in a ceremonial way with a blow to the head.
36:53There was a whole person, whose job it was to come out, and to make sure that they were dead,
37:00by hitting them with a really solid object.
37:07The other interesting thing is the imagery we see of the gravestones.
37:13The ones from the Greek world often are quite detailed.
37:17They provide a lot of information.
37:18There's one for a gladiator named Diodorus, who is shown on the tombstone standing victorious over his defeated opponent,
37:27who lies on the ground with his finger up, begging for mercy.
37:31It's clear that he's the victor, but in the inscription it tells us that Diodorus is dead.
37:38He describes that during the combat, he says he defeated his opponent.
37:44But then he says the treacherous Sumerutus made us fight again, and was the cause of his death.
37:53The epitaphs of gladiators is one of the few pieces of evidence that we have for gladiators,
37:58that is coming from them.
38:02So they often give the name of the gladiator, they give the career statistics,
38:08they also may give family members, friends, comrades-at-arms, and also fans.
38:16They would give us a lot of information about the spread of the combats, about the nature of the combats,
38:21about the rules of the combats, about what actually goes on in the day-to-day life of a gladiator.
38:29To being dedicated would be a demonstration not only of the success of the gladiator,
38:34but also to the importance of the individual who made that funerary dedication as well.
38:41The vast majority of gladiators would not have had funerary dedications made to them, only the most infamous.
38:50Gladiators epitaphs tell us explicitly that they spent a career as a gladiator.
38:56They tell us which style they fought in, they sometimes, as with Flammer, tell us their track record as a
39:02gladiator.
39:03There's nothing that they feel ashamed of about having been a gladiator, they're proud of it.
39:09Following Flammer's death, the gladiator games begin a slow decline, as the Roman Empire enters a period of change and
39:19uncertainty.
39:21In 211 CE, Septimius Severus is in York, in Britain, and contracts an illness and dies.
39:27And after that he's succeeded by both of his sons, Caracalla and Geta.
39:33Now, Geta and Caracalla don't get on very well, so quite quickly into their reign, Caracalla kills Geta,
39:41and then Caracalla reigns for about a decade or so.
39:45But at this stage, the golden age of gladiatorial combat had long passed.
39:50Gladitorial combats start to wind down during the chaotic period of the 3rd century CE.
39:57The Roman Empire, in fact, almost collapses during the 3rd century.
40:02As Rome gets bigger and bigger, and we get further into the imperial period,
40:06what we tend to see is a fragmentation of the political structures that keep Rome functioning well.
40:14That fracturing means that we've got a dispersal of wealth, we've got problems on our frontiers,
40:21there's all sorts of things going on that, for the Romans themselves, it's a problem.
40:26Having spectacles is now not your highest priority.
40:32If you can't get the people that you need to be able to train up to be gladiators,
40:37to bring into slavery, to put into the ludus, to then maybe kill some of them off,
40:44well, it's going to be a tricky time to keep this running.
40:48Then during the 4th century, the empire converts to Christianity.
40:53We now have an emperor who does not like death as entertainment.
41:00He sees value in all human beings, even if they're gladiators.
41:06When you don't have the kind of imperial backing, when you don't have the huge flow of resource
41:12into providing these hugely expensive entertainments, then it just withered on the vine.
41:20Around the beginning of the 5th century, we just stopped hearing about gladiatorial combats happening at all.
41:35It's really easy to judge the Romans for enjoying things like gladiatorial combat, beast hunts and beast fights.
41:44But what we have to remember is that we watch violent movies, we still watch violent sport and we play
41:51violent video games.
41:53And so there is still potentially that side of us as human beings where violence as a spectacle has some
42:00sort of appeal.
42:02Often when we look back at the decisions they made and think, what would I do?
42:08The chances are we would make the same decisions.
42:10If I was poor but I was physically imposing, would I join the amphitheater? Yes.
42:18If games were on where people beat each other up for entertainment, would I go and eat and drink? Yes,
42:25we do.
42:28At the end of the day, the history of Rome is our history. We are Romans.
42:35Over the course of more than 500 years, thousands and thousands of young men, sometimes young women fought in the
42:44arena.
42:46For a great many of them, we don't know who they were, where they came from, their names, who their
42:51families were, what they wanted from life, whether they chose willingly or not to enter into these combats.
42:59These were real people. They fought to exhibit the kind of qualities, the bravery, the discipline, the courage that was
43:07expected of Romans.
43:11And they presented the Roman spectators with the kind of values that they idealized in themselves.
43:17They were a remarkable group of people, I think.
43:21We will never know how many gladiators fought over the centuries, perhaps tens of thousands.
43:31Only a handful will ever have their stories told.
43:35But each had a name, a life, and dreams of their own.
43:41Together, they form a group that continues to capture our imagination more than 2,000 years later.
43:50The Gladiators.
43:52Number four years.
44:00Another time you saw before the creation of theBigücks.
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